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TOURNEY BRACKETS

The Barrage are now 2-10 after dropping a heart breaker to Long Island 18-17, but they still have a shot at the post-season. The Cannons are 2-4 in the American Division while the Barrage are 1-5. Bridgeport's last two games of the season come against the Cannons making it a do or die weekend coming up for both clubs. The Cannons won the first two contests, but the Barrage are confident. Barrage coach Ted Garber said,"I don't think anybody should give up on us because we haven't given up on ourselves." About the upcoming games against Boston he added,"They beat us two, We got to beat them two to even up the series. If you don't do that you don't deserve to be in it(play-offs)"

The biggest story on the night for the Long Island vs Bridgeport game was the sod that was laid down to cover up the infield of the baseball diamond. Due to heavy rains the sod was coming up in huge chunks making it extremely difficult to cut or pick up ground balls. The sod ran right through the crease to the goalie's right and took a left hand turn outside of the arc. Barrage midfielder Brian Langtry acknowledged the horrendous conditions. "It took away the whole left side of the field. You couldn't dodge lefty. Guy on are team like Colsey and me, we like to use the whole field. The Long Island guys dodge more in straight lines...It's not an excuse, we just make a lot of really stupid plays at timely spots in the game." In the first half it seemed to mean everything to the offenses, but in the second half everyone adjusted. Twelve goals were scored by the team on the good side of the field compared to 4 on the side of the sod in the first half.

Rob Mulligan played the whole game in net for the Lizards and looked sharp. When asked about the goalie situation coach DeTommaso said they were simply rotating them to see everyone play already having a sure spot in the post-season. He went on to explain that there's no question that Sal LoCasio is their number one goalie.

Long Island took command of the game in the first quarter mounting a 6-2 lead. The lone goal for Bridgeport was the first two pointer on the night for Roy Colsey. Casey Powell played midfield for the Lizards with Paul Gait, Goetteleman, and Radebaugh sharing attack duties while Riordan served his one game suspension. Powell started the scoring with a worm-burner from just inside the arc dead center set up by Gary Gait. Colsey answered with his goal before Long Island ripped off five unanswered tallies. Most impressive was Powell coming from the midfield. He comes in so fast that the whole defense would collapse in anticipation of their slides leaving guys open all over the place. During the five goal spree he dished two assists out doing just this feeding Radebaugh and Eichelberger. Bridgeport was just having an awful time with their footing in the sod and Mulligan was particularly sharp early(it must of been the neon green mesh he had in his stick).

Things really heated up in the second quarter. Off the face-off longpole Jamie Hanford(he faced off with the longstick and dominated all night) won it to himself and ran the break. Barrage attackman Keith Cromwell cut across the goal from the goalie's left to right, caught the pass and took a lefty jump shot along right pipe low, 6-3. Tim Byrnes slashed Hanford on the play to put Bridgport on the powerplay. Colsey took a hit during the extra man play an asked the ref if he was out of his mind for not making the call. Colsey took his anger out with a wicked shot, but it caught the pipe and Bridgeport was unable to cash in the powerplay. Bridgeport's Jim Gonella then slashed a breaking Billy Serino for a penalty. When the play died there was some pushing and shoving going on, but the players walked away and no punishment was meted out. Powell tried to feed Gait behind the back from behind, but the errant pass was scooped up by Thomas Naglieri for the clear and penalty kill. Langtry in-bounded the ball after Naglieri's shot went off Mulligans face mask. Langtry rolled his way inside and got off a low shot that made the score 7-4. Ghedina took a penalty for the Lizards at the 7:46 mark setting up a Mat Panetta powerplay goal from the top, 7-5. Gary Gait scooped ball clean off the next face and hit brother Paul after three steps. Paul turned and snuck one by goalie Mule. Moments later Mulligan and Panetta got in each others faces. They separated and Cromwell did a smooth little drive by bumping into Mulligan just to make sure he knew he was there. Bridgeport scored the next one, but I missed it because some babe started asking me who I was writing for. sorry about that. Paul Gait bulled his way in to re-establish the 3 point lead just overpowering his man, 9-6. Panetta answered with a similar move for the Barrage. Tim Byrnes was called with the late hit and Bridgeport converted the powerplay with a goal by Blake Miller. The half ended 9-8.

The third quarter was won by Bridgeport 4-3 tying the game at 12-12. Mule made a flurry of saves to end the quarter and keep the score even.

Colsey started the fourth quarter with a sonic blast. He ripped a two point shot that hit the upper left corner about five inches away from the pipes. The shot was so hard that the sound the net made was heard loud and clear form about 65 yards away. That's some serious heat for a 14-12 lead for the Barrage. Gary Gait answered for the Lizards with a normal goal. Powell set Radebaugh up with a similar play as described before to knot the game up again. The teams went back and forth until Finneran scored Long Islands last goal to make it an 18-16 Lizard lead. With only 1:27 left Colsey faked an outside shot which froze the defense, goalie, and the whole stadium for that matter. He then face-dodged his man and beat Mulligan from in close on a low shot, 18-17. On the face-off, it appeared Bridgeport would control, but Powell came out of no where to dive and knock the ball out of the opponents stick. Powell quickly picked the ball up and stood up at the same time with his shorts around his knees. DeTomaso got a timeout and they set up with just over a minute left. Powell started with the ball against longstick Mario Lopez. The Barrage were content to let the shot clock run out and so were the Lizards. Coach Garber claimed that in that situation,"You're not going to take it away from them." in trying to clear with under twenty seconds after violation was called a pass just missed Naglieri. He would of been able to scoop it anyway and get a chance on the other end, but the ball landed in the shotty sod and he couldn't get it clean. Garber went on to say,"We didn't lose this game, we just ran out of time."

Casey Powell is a good lacrosse player. However; he was great amongst his peers in college. In the MLL he has to go up against the best players in the world, and his predecessors who are as good if not better than him. Now he's had a little taste of the rest of the lacrosse world, not just the collegiate level, and I'm one of the happiest guys around watching him get kicked around every now and then ex: Dan Radebaugh. WAKE UP CASEY! You let all this attention get to your head and now your just another punk. Have a little respect for the game, take that number off your back and give it to Gary, and hit the weights!

Hey i cannot even believe you had the balls to post that message up! Casey is the best lacrosse player who has ever lived. Gait is an extremely talented lacrosse player, no one is taking that from him. But Casey has just a little more talent than he does with alot less age. Gait will be in the mll for alot less time than Powell will. So until Gait is his teams captain and leading point scorer, shut your mouth. And until i see you put your equiptment on and play against Casey, You should hit the weights!

c'mon ewmosk, gotta choose a better time to post that crap. Casey was 2 & 5 on sat night and definately looked like the best player on the field from where I was sitting. its one thing to not like him, but stop trying to break on his game. his shit is tight.

OK everybody giving me shit...who are the top 5 offensive players in the MLL? And what are your thoughts on the reason he's no longer playing attack? The hype is so much better than his game. Ryan is having a much better season, with a less talented crew!

Casey is tied for second behind Ryan. And ryan is surrounded by finishers,D'arcy, and Grant, and Kelusky . While Casey has a team (other than Riordan) loaded with people who make their own plays. Goettlmen, Gait, Haugen and Sean usually start their own action.

Jay Jalbert is a great middie and I respect him sooo much and I can say that when I was a lil younger I modeled my game after his a little bit. But he's also the biggest dick I've ever met. Cocky and has a big attitude. More cocky then Casey Powell. Jalbert is a complete middie and he puts up big numbers. But,there's only two middies that I would want on my team. AJ Haugen and Josh Sims. Big All-Americans from great programs. There both HUGE on groundballs. Great at moving the ball around on offense and just sick shots from really far outside. 15 yards away,top right nasty shots,opposite goalie hand. They may not have huge numbers,but any great coach knows that stats are overrated and that the most important stats are head,heart,and hustle. They are on two great teams who will probably go to play against eachother in the championship. They have both contributed to there teams success.

I agree about Jalbert. The most complete middie. He gets his teamates involved first. He doesn't look for his shot until it's necessary. As far as other NJ middies, watch for Matt Caione to make some noise in the future.

I think that the Cannons are going to sweep the Barrage in the next 2 games against each other and go one to play the lizards and probably lose but give a good fight. Barrage have the odds against them. even if they win one and lose one they wont go to the semis.